A Phonetic Comparison of American English and Québécois French (2024)

Undergraduate: Miri Feigin

Faculty Advisor: Laura Demsey
Department: Romance Studies

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The “standard” American accent and the Québécois French accent share several phonetic phenomena despite existing as different languages – the traits shared by the two dialects are diphthongization and laxed high vowels. However, the differing phenomena studied between the two accents are affrication in Québécois French and the cot-caught merger in American English. Within the Francophone and Anglophone worlds, Parisian French and American English have become the “standard” accents for each respective language in mimicking pronunciation. Parisian French exists as a “neutral” or “negative” accent for its lack of phonetic phenomena which facilitates a hierarchy of Francophone dialects. American English has adapted various traits that have ebbed and flowed over time as its regional dialects become increasingly obsolete.